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HBO has its standards, and according to the New York Daily News, the network had no interest in airing a documentary about Beyonce when her team first pitched it.
In fact, it took six weeks for the singer’s management team to convince HBO officials to just sit down and watch her self-made debut, “Life Is but a Dream,” according to the newspaper. But once they saw the film, executives were blown away and it immediately topped the network’s “must have” list.
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“I have no clue why this works,” HBO’s President of Programming Michael Lombardo told the Daily News. “If someone said to me, ‘Why is this on HBO?’ I can’t say why — this isn’t a traditional documentary and this isn’t a traditional music special because there something undeniably moving and honest about it.”
Lombardo said that the film, airing Feb. 16 at 9 p.m., arrived at HBO nearly complete and needed only minor edits and titles added, all of which were handled by Beyoncé’s team.
Initially, he did not go out of his way to accommodate Beyoncé — after all, HBO has long been known for airing critically acclaimed documentaries and blockbuster music specials. They receive and reject hundreds of pitches a year — many times from A-list stars.
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